Lighting Archives - 1stVision Inc. - Machine Vision Articles

June 4, 2025June 4, 2025

Collimated lighting important with telecentric lens

LTCLHP Collimated Light – Courtesy Opto Engineering

Machine vision practitioners, regardless of application or lens type, know that contrast is essential. Without sharp definition, features cannot be detected effectively.

When using a telecentric lens for precision optical 2-D measurements, ideally one should also use collimated lighting. Per the old adage about a chain being only as good as its weakest link, why invest in great lensing and then cut corners on lighting?

WITH collimated light expect high edge definition:

The cost of the light typically pays for itself relative to quality outcomes. Below see red-framed enlargements of the same region of a part being imaged by the same telecentric lens.

The left-hand image was taken with a conventional backlight – note how the light wraps around the edge, creating “confusion” and imprecision due to refracted light coming from all angles.

The right-hand image was obtained with a collimated backlight – with excellent edge definition.

Conventional backlight (left) vs. collimated backlight (right) – Courtesy Opto Engineering.

It all comes down to resolution

While telecentric imaging is a high-performance subset of the larger machine vision field in general, the same principles of resolution apply. It takes several pixels to confidently resolve any given feature – such as an edge – so any “gray areas” induced by lower quality lighting or optics would drag down system performance. See our blog and knowledge-base coverage of resolution for more details.

Collimated lighting in more detail

Above we see the results of using “diffuse” vs. “collimated” light sources, which are compelling. But what is a collimated light and how does it work so effectively?

UNLIKE a diffuse backlight, whose rays emanate towards the object at angles ranging from 0 to almost 180°, a collimated backlight sends rays with only very small deviations from perfectly parallel. Since parallel rays are also all that the telecentric lens receives and transmits on to the camera sensor, stray rays are mitigated and essentially eliminated.

The result is a high-contrast image which is easier to process with high-reliability. Furthermore, shutter speeds are typically faster, achieving necessary saturation more quickly, thereby shortening cycle times and increasing overall throughput.

Many lights to choose from:

The video below shows a range of light types and models, including clearly labeled direct, diffuse, and collimated lights.

Several light types – including clearly labeled collimated lights

[Optional] Telecentric concepts overview

Below please compare the diagrams that show how light rays travel from the target position on the left, through the respective lenses, and on to the sensor position on the far right.

A telecentric lens is designed to insure that the chief rays remain parallel to the optical axis. The key benefit is that (when properly focused and aligned) the system is invariant to the distance of the object from the lens. This effectively ignores light rays coming from other angles of incidence, and thereby supports precise optical measurement systems – a branch of metrology.

If you’d like to go deeper on telecentrics, see the following two resources:

Telecentric concepts presented as a short blog.

Alternatively as a more comprehensive Powerpoint from our KnowledgeBase.

Video: Selecting a telecentric lens:

Call us at 978-474-0044 to tell us more about your application – and how we can guide you through telecentric lensing and lighting options.

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November 20, 2024November 21, 2024

Conquer the glare: CCS LFXV Flat Dome Light for Machine Vision

While the endless parade of new CMOS sensors get plenty of attention, each bringing new efficiency or features, lighting and lensing are too often overlooked. The classic three-legged stool metaphor is an apt reminder that each of sensor, lighting, and lensing are critical to achieving optimal outcomes.

LFXV flat dome lights – courtesy CCS Inc.

Lighting matters

If you haven’t investigated the importance of lighting, or want a refresher, see our Knowledge Base resources on lighting. In those illustrated articles, we review the importance of contrast for machine vision, and how lighting is so critical. By choosing the best type of light, the optimal wavelength, and the right orientation, the difference in outcomes can be remarkable. In fact, sometimes with the right lighting design one can utilize less expensive sensors and lenses, achieving great results by letting the lighting do the work.

Pictures worth a thousand words

Before digging into product details on CCS LFXV flat dome lights, let’s take a look at examples achieved without… and with… the selected models.

Consider an example from electronics parts identification:

Hairline surface of capacitor makes text difficult to read, despite diffuse ring lite (red), a seemingly reasonable lighting choice – courtesy CCS Inc.

Using LFXV-25RD (red) flat dome light, hairline finish is essentially eliminated, creating much better contrast – courtesy CCS Inc.

Here’s an example reading 2-D codes from contact lens packages:

Wavy and glossy surface makes 2-D code hard to discern with red ring light – courtesy CCS Inc.

LFXV50RD red flat dome light creates ideal contrast to read 2-D code – courtesy CCS Inc.

Consider identifying foreign materials in food products, for either automated removal or quality control logging:

Foreign object amidst tea leaves is barely discernable using white dome light – courtesy CCS Inc.

LFXV200IR infrared flat dome light creates contrast to easily identify the foreign object – courtesy CCS Inc.

More about wavelength

In the images above, you may have noticed various wavelengths were used – with better or worse outcomes. Above we showed “just” white light, red light, and infrared, but blue, green, and UV are also candidates, not to mention SWIR and LWIR. Light wavelength choice affects contrast – not just when using dome lights – see wavelengths overview in our knowledge base.

Key concepts

By way of contrast, let’s first look at the way a traditional dome light works:

Traditional dome light design – courtesy CCS Inc.

Notice the camera is mounted to the top of a traditional dome light. The reflective diffusion panel coats all the inside surfaces of the dome – except where the camera is mounted. The diffusion pattern created is pretty good in general – but not perfect at hiding the camera hole entirely. If the target object is highly reflective and tends towards flat, one gets a dark spot in the center of the image…. and the application underperforms the surface inspection one hoped to achieve.

So who needs newfangled flat dome lights?

There’s nothing wrong with conventional dome lights per se, if you’ve got the space for them, and they do the job.

Three downsides to traditional dome lights

1. A traditional dome light may leave a dark spot – if the target is flat and highly reflective

2. A traditional dome light takes up a lot of space

Conventional dome light on left vs. flat dome light on right – courtesy CCS Inc.

Notice how much space the conventional dome light takes up, compared to a “see through” LED flat dome light. But space-savings aren’t the only benefit to flat dome lights….

3. Working distance is “fixed” by a traditional dome light

Most imaging professionals know all about camera working distance (WD) and how to set up the optics for the camera sensor, a matching lens, and the object to be imaged, to get the optical geometry right.

Now let’s take a look at light working distance (LWD). Consider the following can-top inspection scenarios:

By varying the light working distance (LWD), easily done with see-through flat LED dome lights, one can emphasize or de-emphasize features, according to application objectives – courtesy CCS Inc.

Wondering how to light your application?

Send us your sample(s)! If you can ship it, we can set up lighting in our labs to do the work for you.

May 24, 2024

Monochrome light better for machine vision than white light

Black and white vs. color sensor? Monochrome or polychrome light frequencies? Visible or non-visible frequencies? Machine vision systems builders have a lot of choices – and options!

Let’s suppose you are working in the visible spectrum. You recall the rule of thumb to favor monochrome over color sensors when doing measurement applications – for same sized sensors.

So you’ve got a monochrome sensor that’s responsive in the range 380 – 700 nm. You put a suitable lens on your camera matched to the resolution requirements and figure “How easy, I can just use white light!”. You might have sufficient ambient light. Or you need supplemental LED lighting and choose white, since your target and sensor appear fine in white light – why overthink it? – you think.

Think again – monochrome may be better

Polychromatic (white) light is comprised of all the colors of the ROYGBIV visible spectrum – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet – including all the hues within each of those segments of the visible spectrum. We humans perceive it as simple white light, but glass lenses and CMOS sensor pixels see things a bit differently.

Chromatic aberration is not your friend

Unless you are building prisms intended to separate white light into its constituent color groups, you’d prefer a lens that performs “perfectly” to focus light from the image onto the sensor, without introducing any loss or distortion.

Lens performance in all its aspects is a worthwhile topic in its own right, but for purposes of this short article, let’s discuss chromatic aberration. The key point is that when light passes through a lens, it refracts (bends) differently in correlation with the wavelength. For “coarse” applications it may not be noticeable; but trace amounts of arsenic in one’s coffee might go unnoticed too – inquiring minds want to understand when it starts to matter.

Take a look at the following two-part illustration and subsequent remarks.

Transverse and longitudinal chromatic aberration – Courtesy Edmund Optics

In the illustrations above:

C denotes red light at 656 nm
d denotes yellow light at 587 nm
F denotes blue light at 486 nm

Figure 1, showing transverse chromatic aberration, shows us that differing refraction patterns by wavelength shift the focal point(s). If a given point on your imaged object reflect or emits light in two more more of the wavelengths, the focal point of one might land in a different sensor pixel than the other, creating blur and confusion on how to resolve the point. One wants the optical system to honor the real world geometry as closely as possible – we don’t want a scatter plot generated if a single point could be attained.

Figure 2 shows longitudinal chromatic aberration, which is another way of telling the same story. The minimum blur spot is the span between whatever outermost rays correspond to wavelengths occurring in a given imaging instance.

We could go deeper, beyond single lenses to compound lenses; dig into advanced optics and how lens designers try to mitigate for chromatic aberration (since some users indeed want or need polychromatic light). But that’s for another day. The point here is that chromatic aberration exists, and it’s best avoided if one can.

So what’s the solution?

The good news is that a very easy way to completely overcome chromatic aberration is to use a single monochromatic wavelength! If your target object reflects or emits a given wavelength, to which your sensor is responsive, the lens will refract the light from a given point very precisely, with no wavelength-induced shifts.

Making it real

The illustration below shows that certain materials reflect certain wavelengths. Utilize such known properties to generate contrast essential for machine vision applications.

Red light reflects well from gold, copper, and silver – Courtesy CCS Inc.

In the illustration we see that blue light reflects well from silver (Ag) but not from copper (Cu) nor gold (Ag). Whereas red light reflects well from all three elements. The moral of the story is to use a wavelength that’s matched to what your application is looking for.

Takeaway – in a nutshell

Per the carpenter’s guidance to “measure twice – cut once”, approach each new application thoughtfully to optimize outcomes:

Is the application best suited to visible or non-visible portions of the spectrum?
If visible, is it best solved with a color sensor or a monochrome sensor (possibly using a specific color frequency)?
Avoid chromatic aberration if possible by using monochromatic light
Consider light sources and filters, in addition to the characteristics of your application’s substances and scenes

Click to contact — Give us an idea of your application and we will contact with lighting options and suggestions.

Additional resources you may find helpful from 1stVision’s knowledge base and blog articles: (in no particular order)

April 2, 2024

Machine vision problems solved with SWIR lighting

Some problems best solved outside the visible spectrum

Most of us think about vision with a human bias, since most of us are normally sighted with color stereo vision. We perceive distance, hues, shading, and intensity, for materials that emit or reflect light in the wavelengths 380 – 750 nm. Many machine vision problems can also be solved using monochrome or color light and sensors in the visible spectrum.

Human visible light – marked VIS – is just a small portion of what sensors can detect – Courtesy Edmund Optics

Many applications are best solved or even only solved, in wavelengths that we cannot see with our own eyes. There are sensors that react to wavelengths in these other parts of the spectrum. Particularly interesting are short wave infrared (SWIR) and ultraviolet (UV). In this blog we focus on SWIR, with wavelengths in the range 0.9 – 1.7um.

Examples in SWIR space

The same apple with visible vs. SWIR lighting and sensors – Courtesy Effilux

Food processing and agricultural applications possible with SWIR. Consider the above images, where the visible image shows what appears to be a ripe apple in good condition. With SWIR imaging, a significant bruise is visible – as SWIR detects higher densities of water which render as black or dark grey. Supplier yields determine profits, losses, and reputations. Apple suppliers benefit by automated sorting of apples that will travel to grocery shelves vs. lightly bruised fruit that can be profitably juiced or sauced.

Even clear fluids in opaque bottles render dark in SWIR light –
Courtesy Effilux

Whether controlling the filling apparatus or quality controlling the nominally filled bottles, SWIR light and sensors can see through glass or opaque plastic bottles and render fluids dark while air renders white. The detection side of the application is solved!

Hyperspectral imaging

Yet another SWIR application is hyperspectral imaging. By identifying the spectral signature of every pixel in a scene, we can use light to discern the unique profile of substances. This in turn can identify the substance and permit object identification or process detection. Consider also multi-spectral imaging, an efficient sub-mode of hyperspectral imaging that only looks for certain bands sufficient to discern “all that’s needed”.

How to do SWIR imaging

The SWIR images shown above are pseudo-images, where pixel values in the SWIR spectrum have been re-mapped into the visible spectrum along grey levels. But that’s just to help our understanding, as an automated machine vision application doesn’t need to show an image to a human operator.

In machine vision, an algorithm on the host PC interprets the pixel values to identify features and make actionable determinations. Such as “move apple to juicer” or “continue filling bottle”.

Components for SWIR imaging

SWIR sensors and cameras; SWIR lighting, and SWIR lenses. For cameras and sensors, consider Allied Vision’s Goldeye series:

Goldeye SWIR cameras – Courtesy Allied Vision

Goldeye SWIR cameras are available in compact, rugged, industrial models, or as advanced scientific versions. The former has optional thermal electric cooling (TEC), while the latter is only available in cooled versions.

For SWIR lighting, consider Effilux bar and ring lights. Effilux lights come in various wavelengths for both the visible and SWIR applications. Contact us to discuss SWIR lighting options.

EFFI-FLEX bar light and EFFI-RING ring light – Courtesy Effilux

By emitting light in the SWIR range, directed to reflect off targets known to reveal features in the SWIR spectrum, one builds the components necessary for a successful application.

Hyperspectral bar lights – Courtesy Effilux

And don’t forget the lens. One may also need a SWIR-specific lens, or a hybrid machine vision lens that passes both visible and SWIR wavelengths. Consider Computar VISWIR Lite Series Lenses or their VISWIR Hyper-APO Series Lenses. It’s beyond the scope of this short blog to go into SWIR lensing. Read our recent blog on Wide Band SWIR Lensing and Applications or speak with your lensing professional to be sure you get the right lens.

Takeaway

Whether SWIR or UV (more on that another time), the key point is that some machine vision problems are best solved outside the human visible portions of the spectrum. While there are innovative users and manufacturers continuing to push the boundaries – these areas are sufficiently mature that solutions are predictably creatable. Think beyond the visible constraints!

Call us at 978-474-0044. Or follow the contact us link below to provide your information, and we’ll call you.

1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera and components selection. With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC cards and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!